I'm back and ready to blog! My gosh.. it's been soooo long. My tuition student constantly asked me y I've not blogged for so long.. think partly cos I was really busy and partly cos I wasnt in the mood.. no feeling la..
Well.. lets see what happened since my last post... went Taiwan, Debbie's bday, rushed to complete my law essay, Guangzhou, Janice's bday!
Taiwan
Flew to Taipei alone to meet Rujin and while its so nice to be able to meet him again, realised that taking a midnite flight is an expensive business. At least for him. I checked Zuji to see which airport I'll be landing and according to them, its Song Shan airport, thus he diligently took the last metro train to the nearest station and walked there.. just as he got there, the whole airport went into total darkness, and after asking around, he realised that the place does not have any nite flights and I am arriving at Chiang Kai Shek airport instead. Took a cab down which costed a bomb and idled at the airport for 2 hrs before i appeared at 2am. Then we had to take a cab down to the hotel too as there is no other way of getting around beside cabs... another bomb.. in 1 nite, just to pick me up it costs him more than S$120. But its okies.. finally in Taiwan!
The 1st day I was there, the weather was like soooooooo hot, totally opposite from what the weather forecast stated. I was like cursing at the lousy information as I was expecting showers thus even brought my brella from HK. Anyway, sun is always much better than rain while on a holiday. Anyway, with our bags, we made our way to another hotel.. the one that came with my air tix. Its call Chun Chung Han She Hotel and is recommened in Lonely Planet too, and its just as what Lonely planet described. A beautiful place, full of oriental flavour, friendly staff just that its hard to find. Finding the hotel is like going on a hunt.. and when we located the building.. finding the entrance is another challenge! But I will recommend others to stay there as the location is pretty convenient and adequately comfortable. Not Hilton standard though.
Went to Chiang Kai Shek memorial hall and my gosh.. that place is huge! The consists of 2 buildings- one where its all about CKS and the other is a cultural centre. The area between the 2 buildings is a big, well-manicured park.
Anyway, after CKS memorial hall, the next stop is.... SHI LIN YE SHI!
The mintue we got to the nite mkt, we are both excitied! All the stuff and food beckoning us. I like Shilin because unlike other nite mkt where everyone sells the same thing, there is quite alot of variety at Shilin. We like it soo much that we went there 2 nites straight.
Next day, we wanted to go to Yang Ming Shan but the weather failed us.. it started to pour!
Thus we headed to Taipei 101. Its currently the tallest building around but its estimated that this will last for only 5 years before Dubai takes over that title.
 Oh yah... its supposed to resemble a bamboo but I think it looks more like a pagoda instead.
After that, we went to another nite mkt known as Snake Alley. Nothing much there, but alot of older folks and silly games. Think I enjoy the games more. There's alot of games there which requires you to shoot with an air gun for example, there are many roles of cigarettes and to get a pack, one must shoot it off the bar such that it drops from the where its standing..and I won a pack! No use to me though.. but an achievement.. wahaha.. better than Rujin. Actually, this is the only game I am better cos the rest i simply sux. This is a pict with the lady owes the store, a very nice lady and like alot of Taiwanese likes to chat and know more about you. This ain something bad because alot of other people like Singaporeans simply cannot be bothered with others and if someone chats with u slightly longer, will think that he is up to no good..
The next day we headed out to Hualian, it was a 3 hr train ride there and its totally different from Taipei. The weather is totally different too! It was wetter and colder. Although it was only about 23 C but the wind was sooo strong that everyone there is wrapped up. Anyway, we got a room opp the train station and the view was simply great because behind the train station is a mountain.. err.. okies maybe hill cos I've no idea how tall it is.
There's actually nothing much to do in Hualian and the main shopping and eating area is on Zhong Shan rd (Its actually very long) thus its possible to get around by foot. The other alternative is by taxi because I do not see any buses ard n there's definitely no Metro. One of my deepest impression about my time in Hualian was trying to find a $ changer as we do not have much NT on us and to our dismay we found out that the only place for foreign xchange are the Banks and they are all closed on a Sunday. Thus we have no choice but to withdraw. But trying to find a suitable ATM machine is soo hard because most of the ATMs are either Cirrus or Maestro competible and I didn't bring my Singapore ATM cards with me, Rujin's card had some problem and I do not know the PiN no of my Visa, thus the only hope is the Hang Seng card in my wallet but its competible with Plus only thus everytime we see a machine we'' pounced on it to see if my Hang Seng card can be used... finally found 1. You have no idea how happy we were then.
Well, we could have waited to the next day but we were supposed to go to Taroko Gorge and since the gorge was 19km long, we estimated that the entire thing will take us like 9hrs or so to walk thus wanted to leave early. Err.. but we didn't leave for the gorge early afterall, because we were both pigs! By the time we get up, its about noon. In the end, we had to hire a pte taxi to bring us around the gorge. This cut the time from a minimum of 8 to just 5hrs and total walking from 19km to perhaps 5. There are certain parts that we still get off from the cab to walk in order to fully enjoy the beauty of the gorge. The driver will just wait for us ahead. He is very familiar with the gorge thus will explain to us too. Sadly, some parts of the gorge are damaged and cannot be entered because of the 3 typhoons that Hualian exprienced this year. Hualian is a major exporter of marble and alot can be seen at Taroko.
 At the entrance of the gorge
In the past, the road through the gorge had to be hacked out, with the aid of explosive and many died working there. This is where the names of those that died are enshrined, however, due to the floods, the way up was closed to public as maintenance work is needed.  The other side of the suspension bridge is not permittable to public.. something to do with conservation of the nature.
 While others are busying seashell picking, the only picking i can do is marble.
Anyway, another kinda stone that Hualian is famous for is the Mei Gui Shi or "rose stone". Its basically pink in color and have black and brown lines on it, such that it looks like a chinese painting. I bought a choker that seems like a mountain and trees surrounding it.
While things are more expensive in Taiwan, the food is relatively cheaper. But sadly, I didn't really eat the food as my stomach still wasnt v well then. But now I'm back to my usual eating habits n appetite! Which is bad... tsk tsk
Actually, I have alot more to write.. but think that can wait.. not really in the mood to write and I've a Thai test tomorrow.. going to die big time for that as all the consonants looks the same to me!
It took me the entire day to write this entry as I keep wandering away from the comp... to collect my laundry.. for dinner.. groceries shopping.. now its time to start studying for my test |
